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Friday, September 18, 2009

I received this email from the Cayuga Deer organization, and I am outraged by the proposed actions of Cayuga Heights. When there are humane methods to control deer population, murdering innocent animals should be off the table!

Dear friends,

The latest news is that the Cayuga Heights trustees are now lowering the number of deer they will allow to live to as low as 20 (all of whom will be sterilized), and they want to speed up the killing process, killing more deer sooner than their original plan proposed.

A reliable source tells us that this is due to their wanting to save money, as they will have to hire a person each year to oversee the process, and if they can kill more deer faster, they can pay out less money to this employee over time. You may have heard that the 10-year projection was that they’d be paying $1 million for their deer-killing plan and as a result, have to raise taxes by 5%. So this is how they propose reducing costs — kill more deer more quickly and allow fewer to live, as sterilization is more expensive than killing. Meanwhile, far cheaper non-lethal approaches to reducing human-deer conflicts exist, and are proven to be successful (see http://www.cayugadeer.org/alternatives.htm ) Yet, the mayor and trustees will not open their minds wide enough to save the tax payers money by trying these alternative approaches, nor have they indicated a willingness to consider changing the fencing ordinance to allow residents to adequately protect their gardens.You can read the latest Ithaca Journal article here:http://www.theithacajournal.com/article/20090914/NEWS01/909140388/1126/news/Cayuga+Heights+wants+to+speed+culling+processIt’s important to understand that this is essentially an extermination plan,and the massacre they are proposing — to be carried out in residents’ back yards -- will be violent, bloody and a disgrace to our community.

PLEASE JOIN US ON MONDAY SEPT. 21st TO PROTEST THIS OUTRAGEOUS PLAN!The trustees will meet at 7 PM at Marcham Hall, 836 Hanshaw Rd. (across from community corners). Protesters will be assembling a half an hour before the meeting. To all of you who came out last month to protest, THANK YOU! We hope you will join us again this coming Monday. If you have been receiving these emails and not yet participated, NOW is the time to become active! Doing nothing will result in the death of hundreds of animals and the tacit acceptance of having firearms discharged near homes and roadways, endangering our community and turning Cayuga Heights into a killing field for wildlife.

EVERY PERSON COUNTS! Please don’t turn your back now. Your community, and the inncocents who live amongst us, depend on you to show up. Bring your own sign, or there will be extra signs there that you can hold. And don’t forget to spread the word!

PS: We still have a pressing need for more people to volunteer and become more active in organizing these efforts. Now that we are getting closer to the point where the deer will actually be killed, this effort needs to ramp up and more people need to get involved. Once the killing begins, it will become much harder to stop it. So please contact us if you can help! contact@cayugadeer.org